1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for protecting a vehicle from theft.
2) Description of the Related Art
A conventional vehicle anti theft system keeps a vehicle from theft by locking the engine of the vehicle using an immobilizer, as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-257013.
However, the vehicle anti theft system disclosed is merely a preventive measure against a specified theft and cannot handle various kinds of theft including theft of the vehicle itself, theft of constituent parts, and vandalizing of the vehicle.
Various kinds of vehicle anti theft systems should be equipped to take all possible measures to protect a vehicle from all kinds of vehicle damage, which is unrealistic and troublesome to operate all the systems. Another problem is that it cannot cover a new kind of vehicle damage.
In addition, when various kinds of vehicle anti theft systems are equipped, all the systems should be kept on running because they are not under a central control, resulting in consumption of a large amount of current. After all, a user selectively runs the minimum required vehicle anti theft systems manually, which is unable to securely protect the vehicle from theft.
In recent years, vehicle damage including vehicle theft tends to increase and theft techniques become advanced and sophisticated. A vehicle anti theft technology that largely surpasses the various acts of vehicle damage is highly requested than ever before.